RESEARCH ARTICLE
Neuropeptide Y and α-MSH Circadian Levels in Two Populations with Low Body Weight: Anorexia Nervosa and Constitutional Thinness Bogdan Galusca1, Gaëtan Prévost2, Natacha Germain1, Isabelle Dubuc2, Yiin Ling1, Youssef Anouar2, Bruno Estour1, Nicolas Chartrel2* 1 Department of Endocrinology, CHU de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France, 2 Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) Unité 982, Laboratory of Neuronal and Neuroendocrine Differentiation and Communication, Institute for Research and Innovation in Biomedecine (IRIB), University of Rouen, Mont-Saint-Aignan, France *
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Abstract
OPEN ACCESS Citation: Galusca B, Prévost G, Germain N, Dubuc I, Ling Y, Anouar Y, et al. (2015) Neuropeptide Y and αMSH Circadian Levels in Two Populations with Low Body Weight: Anorexia Nervosa and Constitutional Thinness. PLoS ONE 10(3): e0122040. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0122040 Academic Editor: Etienne Challet, CNRS, University of Strasbourg, FRANCE
Context Anorexia nervosa (AN) presents an adaptive appetite regulating profile including high levels of ghrelin and 26RFa (orexigenic) and low levels of leptin and PYY (anorexigenic). However, this adaptive mechanism is not effective in promoting food intake. The NPY/proopiomelanocortin (POMC) system plays a crucial role in the regulation of feeding behavior as NPY is the most potent orexigenic neuropeptide identified so far and as the POMC-derived peptide α-MSH drastically reduces food intake, and this peptidergic system has not been thoroughly studied in AN.
Received: December 4, 2014 Accepted: February 10, 2015
Objective
Published: March 23, 2015
The aim of the present study was thus to investigate whether a dysfunction of the NPY/ POMC occurs in two populations with low body weight, AN and constitutional thinness (CT).
Copyright: © 2015 Galusca et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper.
Design and Settings This was a cross-sectional study performed in an endocrinological unit and in an academic laboratory.
Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report.
Investigated Subjects
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Three groups of age-matched young women were studied: 23 with AN (AN), 22 CT and 14 normal weight controls.
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0122040 March 23, 2015
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NPY and α-MSH in Anorexia Nervosa
Main Outcome Measures Twelve-point circadian profiles of plasma NPY and α-MSH levels were measured in the three groups of investigated subjects.
Results No significant circadian variation of NPY was detected between the three groups. Plasma α-MSH levels were significantly lower in AN (vs controls) all over the day. The CT group, compared to controls, presented lower levels of α-MSH in the morning and the evening, and an important rise during lunchtime.
Conclusion In AN patients, the NPY system is not up-regulated under chronic undernutrition suggesting that this may play a role in the inability of anorectic women to adapt food intake to their energy demand. In contrast, low circadian α-MSH levels integrate the adaptive profile of appetite regulation of this disease. Finally, in CT women, the important α-MSH peak detected during lunchtime could explain why these patients are rapidly food satisfied.
Introduction Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by dramatic decrease of food intake, important weight loss (BMI
